Desktop Summit CFP announed and Registration open

[Kenny Duffus <kenny kde org>]

The Desktop Summit 2011[1] is a joint conference organised by the GNOME[2] and 
KDE[3] communities, in Berlin, Germany from the 6th August 2011 to the 12th 
August 2011. Held annually in cities around Europe, GUADEC and Akademy are the 
world's largest gatherings of those involved with the free desktop or mobile 
user interfaces. Developers, artists, translators, community organisers, 
users, and representatives from government, education, and businesses and 
anyone else who shares an interest are welcome. GNOME and KDE are Free 
Software communities that drive the user interfaces of many Linux-powered 
devices, ranging from smartphones to laptops, or personal media centers. This 
year, for the second time, both communities have decided to organise a single, 
joint conference. We anticipate over a thousand participants, covering both 
projects as well as related technologies.

Registration for the event is now open and the Call for Participation is 
available.

The Desktop Summit Team are excited about the opportunity to have a conference 
with an unprecedented breadth of presentations about the Free Software 
Desktop, and are looking forward to your registrations and submissions.

Of particular interest for the Desktop Summit are presentations and lightning 
talks on the following topics:

  * Closer collaboration between GNOME, KDE and related projects
  * GNOME, KDE and the mobile platform
  * The free desktops and social networks
  * Search, meta-data and the semantic desktop
  * The Desktop and the OS
  * Relationship with distributions and platforms
  * Optimizing power, memory and disk I/O usage
  * Designing and writing applications with strong user interfaces
  * Supporting non-technical contributions (e.g. documentation, visual design,   
marketing, project management, etc.) and attracting new community members
  * GNOME beyond the 3.0 release: the GNOME OS
  * Powerful foundations, elegant interfaces: Presentations on improvements in 
KDE applications
  * Government use of the free desktops; Free Software and non-governmental 
organizations
  * Attention for Free Software software in education and participation of 
students

Submissions that do not fit into these categories are welcome too, provided 
that they are relevant for the GNOME or KDE stacks, free desktops or mobile 
user interfaces in general. We'd like to invite submissions not only from the 
organizing communities themselves but also from users of free desktops, from 
projects and organizations related to GNOME and KDE as well as contributors 
involved in technologies they are based on. Submissions with cross-desktop 
relevance are preferred. We are looking both for presentations and lightning 
talks.

The Desktop Summit Call for Participation has the following timeline:

* March 25th: Deadline for submission of abstracts
* April 20th: Notification of speakers
* August 6th-12th: The conference takes place in Berlin, Germany

Please submit your proposal before March 25th through the online paper 
submission system[4]. Papers will be reviewed by the program committee between 
March 26th and April 20th.

If you are interested in organizing a workshop session, a BoF or a project 
room please wait for a later separate call for participation.
The program committee is looking forward to your suggestions and submissions 
for participating in this year's exciting edition of the Desktop Summit. In 
case of questions regarding the CFP feel free to talk to the programme 
committee[5]. For general questions on the conference please consult the 
Desktop Summit web site or contact the Desktop Summit organising team[6].

   1. https://www.desktopsummit.org/
   2. http://foundation.gnome.org/
   3. http://ev.kde.org/
   4. https://www.desktopsummit.org/submit
   5. mailto:ds-talks desktopsummit org
   6. mailto:ds-team desktopsummit org